Friday, August 23, 2013

Page 193

“Maybe so,” said Roman, “but you should understand, Your Majesty. You might very well lose control of Atreya to them.”

“We will see about that.”

‘And besides, she’s already lost it to Abolish,’ said Voreese.

‘There’s another problem,’ said Mehlsanz. ‘I abandoned the Vanguard. I’m not sure how welcoming they’ll be. They may try to kill us.’

‘Oh. Delightful.’

“Then maybe we should go to Sai-hee for help,” said Roman.

Voreese gave a winged shrug and tilted her bird’s head. ‘It’s worth looking into, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I doubt Sai-hee will break her neutrality and attack Abolish just because we ask her to.’

‘Getting in contact with her will not be easy.’

Helen folded her arms. “Why does Abolish want war, exactly? And what kind of war will they try to create?”

“If nothing else, their motives are always easy to understand. They want to cause as much destruction and death as possible. Whatever their plan is, it’ll be designed to maximize those things.”

‘Their plan is obvious enough,’ said Mehlsanz. ‘They want Atreya to instigate war with another country in such a way that even more countries will be dragged into the fighting.’

‘That’s not an easy thing to do,’ said Voreese. ‘Most countries have learned their lessons about forming dangerously dependent alliances.’

‘But that is what they will aim for,’ said Mehlsanz. ‘In their eyes, even if they fail to pull more combatants, they’ll still have a war like they wanted. And they’ll make it as bloody as possible.’

“I see,” said Helen, and she ventured into the next room and turned on the television. It didn’t take her long to find a channel where a reporter was standing confusedly in front of Belgrant Castle with police and firefighters in the background. “They will try to use this,” she said. “My disappearance will soon be discovered, and they will rally for public support.”

Since a servant sees the Reaper's as what their idea of death is, what if they served for so long, fought, and killed so many, that when they looked to their Reaper, their friend, and saw themselves, a bloodied and gore covered shell of a human who's passed their prime, their actual life, whose longevity had caused an ease between rights and wrongs, until one day they remember, and they beg for death at the hand of their dearest friend.